New York City’s police commissioner says it was “very inappropriate” for officers to turn their backs on the mayor in a sign of disrespect as he spoke at a slain officer’s funeral.

Commissioner William Bratton appeared Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and defended Mayor Bill de Blasio. He says de Blasio is “totally supportive” of officers.

On Saturday, hundreds of police officers standing outside the church where Officer Rafael Ramos’ funeral was held turned their backs as de Blasio eulogized him.

Ramos and his partner were shot and killed a week ago in a brazen daylight attack on their patrol car. The mayor has been portrayed by some critics as too supportive of protesters who have been criticizing police.

The tensions go far beyond race relations in the city, Bratton said.

“They really do feel under attack, rank-and-file officers and much of American police leadership,” Bratton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “They feel that they are under attack from the federal government at the highest levels.”

Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani also denounced the protest.

“It doesn’t matter if you like the mayor or don’t like the mayor; you have to respect the mayor’s position. I don’t support that,” Giuliani, who was mayor from 1994 to 2002, said on CBS.

John Minchillo / Associated PressPolice officers turn their backs as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at the funeral of New York city police officer Rafael Ramos on Saturday.

NEW YORK — Thousands of police officers from across the U.S. packed a church and spilled onto streets outside Saturday to honour a slain New York officer as a devoted family man, aspiring chaplain and hero, though an air of unrest surrounding his ambush shooting was not completely pushed aside.

While mourners inside the church applauded politely as Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke, hundreds of officers outside turned their backs on him in a show of disrespect for what they see as his support for anti-police protesters.

The rush of officers far and wide to New York for Rafael Ramos’ funeral reminded some of the bond after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Superstorm Sandy. Vice-President Joe Biden promised that the “incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide.”

Still, tensions were evident when officers turned away from giant screens showing de Blasio, who has been harshly criticized by New York Police Department union officials as a contributor to a climate of mistrust that preceded the killings of Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu.

After the officers were shot to death, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day. In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, both of whom were black and unarmed, by white police officers.

Police union officials in contentious contract negotiations with the city have faulted de Blasio for showing sympathy to protesters angry over the failure to file charges against the police officers involved in the deaths of Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Garner in the New York borough of Staten Island.

At a hospital after the officers’ slayings, the police union’s president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on de Blasio. Lynch said the mayor had “blood on his hands.”

Outside the church, Sgt. Myron Joseph of the suburban New Rochelle Police Department said he and fellow officers turned their backs spontaneously to “support our brothers in the NYPD.”

In a statement, de Blasio’s spokesman said: “The Ramos and Liu families, our police department and our city are dealing with an unconscionable tragedy. Our sole focus is unifying this city and honouring the lives of our two police officers.”

The NYPD said through its public relations office that it had no comment.

In his eulogy, de Blasio said hearts citywide were broken after the Dec. 20 shootings.

Kevin Hagen/Getty ImagesU.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrives outside the funeral of slain New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Rafael Ramos at the Christ Tabernacle Church on Saturday.

“All of this city is grieving and grieving for so many reasons,” de Blasio said. “But the most personal is that we’ve lost such a good man, and the family is in such pain.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the sea of blue mourners for their professionalism at recent rallies over police conduct when protesters insulted them, and Biden spoke passionately about the effects of the officers’ deaths.

Lady Gaga was at the Grammy awards this year — in the front row, to boot — though her presence onscreen during the telecast was minimal and her presence onstage was nonexistent. But why?Lady Gaga was at the Grammy awards this year — in the front row, to boot — though her presence onscreen during the telecast was minimal and her presence onstage was nonexistent. But why? Gaga is so much fun at the Grammys! Below, some photos and other remembrances of Gaga at Grammys past.
<strong>2010</strong>
[caption id="attachment_62196" align="alignnone" width="620" caption="Mario Anzuoni / Reuters"]<img class="size-full wp-image-62196" title="Lady Gaga" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/2010.jpg&quot; alt="" width="620" height="465" />[/caption]
Gaga made her first appearance at the Grammys with a red-carpet outfit made of shredded clingwrap/papier mache and a giant menacing jack. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacks&quot; target="_blank">This kind of jack</a>.) She also performed <em>Poker Face</em>, <em>Speechless</em> and <em>Your Song</em> with Elton John and won dance recording of the year and dance album of the year.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehJ4PB5o6cA&w=620]
While she wasn't performing things or winning things, Lady Gaga ruined the show for whoever was sitting behind her by wearing this hat:
[caption id="attachment_62198" align="alignnone" width="620" caption="Lucy Nicholson / Reuters"]<img class="size-full wp-image-62198" title="Lady Gaga's hat" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/hat.jpg&quot; alt="" width="620" height="465" />[/caption]
<strong>2011</strong>
She arrived like this:
[caption id="attachment_62200" align="alignnone" width="620" caption="Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images"]<img class="size-full wp-image-62200" title="Lady Gaga" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/gaga.jpg&quot; alt="" width="620" height="465" />[/caption]
Performed in condom-inspired costumes that looked like this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl0N7JM3wZk&w=620]
And accepted her award for best pop vocal album wearing this:
[caption id="attachment_62201" align="alignnone" width="620" caption="Lucy Nicholson / Reuters"]<img class="size-full wp-image-62201" title="Lady Gaga" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/gagagrammy.jpg&quot; alt="" width="620" height="465" />[/caption]
<strong>2012</strong>
This year, the only notable thing Lady Gaga did at the Grammys was stand up to go to the bathroom and sit back down, which you can see her doing below. What sort of shiny latex tomfoolery do we have to expect from Gaga in 2013? More than this, we hope!
[caption id="attachment_62204" align="alignnone" width="620" caption="Mario Anzuoni / Reuters"]<img class="size-full wp-image-62204" title="Lady Gaga" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/gaga20121.jpg&quot; alt="" width="620" height="465" />[/caption]

“When an assassin’s bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation,” the vice-president said.

After the funeral, Lynch and de Blasio exchanged nods as they exited the church. Lynch refused to answer reporters’ questions about officers turning their backs.

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch had suggested officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

Soon after taking office this year, de Blasio dropped the city’s opposition to a judge’s finding that the police department discriminated against minorities with its anti-crime stop-and-frisk tactics.

But since last week’s shootings, de Blasio has stood firmly by police, calling on demonstrators to temporarily halt protests and praising the department after it arrested several men charged with threatening police.

The killings shook the city and put a halt to large-scale local protests criticizing police over the high-profile, in-custody deaths.

When the Ramos family arrived at church Saturday, the elder son — wearing his father’s NYPD jacket — was hugged by a police officer.

Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.

Police Commissioner William Bratton said Ramos had been made honorary chaplain of the police precinct where he had worked.

Bratton said in his eulogy that Ramos and Liu would be “partners for all time.”

Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend the funeral.

“He’s one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement — it absolutely affects everyone,” he said.

Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011. Funeral plans for Liu haven’t yet been announced.

This past Saturday afternoon, two New York City police officers were gunned down in cold blood while they sat in their squad car outside a Brooklyn housing project. Within hours, the head of the city’s largest police union declared whom was to blame for the terrible tragedy: Mayor Bill de Blasio. Standing outside the hospital where the slain officers were taken, Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declared that there was “blood on many hands tonight” but that it “starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor.”

Those jarring comments followed the extraordinary decision by Lynch and many officers to literally turn their backs on the mayor as he entered the hospital. Taken in tandem, those actions cemented the perception that de Blasio’s support for those protesting the chokehold death of Eric Garner had created a rift between the mayor and his city’s police force, one that Saturday’s slayings of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos had potentially made insurmountable.

But that’s an oversimplification of a story that’s been unfolding since long before Garner’s killing. The reality is that de Blasio and the union have been at odds since he campaigned for mayor last year on the promise to upend the city’s law enforcement status quo, including overhauling Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk program — a vow that de Blasio largely kept once in office. The police union, meanwhile, has a long history of taking public stands against New York City mayors, including law-and-order types Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani. The relationship between de Blasio and the cops wasn’t soured solely due to the mayor’s response to Garner’s death and the subsequent protests. The mayor and the NYPD were never going to get along, no matter what.

Devoid of that context, Lynch’s remarks this weekend sounded like a rare, raw moment of candor unleashed in the heat of the moment. In reality, this was simply the latest, loudest attempt to discredit de Blasio. Lynch’s ongoing efforts to undermine the mayor were caught on tape eight days earlier at a closed-door union meeting. “If they’re not going to support us when we need ’em,” Lynch said, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by Capital New York, “we’ll embarrass them when we can.” Given the chance Saturday, Lynch did just that.

John Minchillo / Associated PressPolice officers turn their backs as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at the funeral for slain New York city police officer Rafael Ramos on Saturday.

The tension between City Hall and the police union predates de Blasio by at least two decades. As former New York Times reporter David Firestone has noted, Lynch and the PBA attacked de Blasio’s three predecessors almost as vociferously. It may have seemed extraordinary when, earlier this month, the union began asking officers to sign a letter requesting that de Blasio not attend their funerals in the event they are killed in the line of duty. The union, though, tried a similar move in 1997, during Giuliani’s tenure.

Related

The biggest difference between now and then isn’t what the police union—and Lynch specifically, who’s been president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association for 15 years—is saying. It’s that the killing of Garner and the murder of two police officers have put the strained relationship between the mayor and the NYPD in the national spotlight.

While the union’s anger with de Blasio began with his opposition to stop-and-frisk, it has grown to include a whole lot more—everything from his support for police retraining and body cameras, to the fact that his wife’s chief of staff is in a relationship with a convicted felon who once mocked police as “pigs” on social media. The mayor’s decision, in the wake of the Garner grand jury verdict, to describe how he instructed his biracial son to “take special care” when interacting with cops was the culmination of months of tension, but hardly the spark that started the current fight.

It’s not fair to say that this is all just rhetoric. There is obviously a real divide between this specific mayor and his police force. Many of the NYPD’s rank-and-file clearly feel betrayed by the mayor’s decision to have a public conversation about police reforms that the officers think should happen in private, if it happens at all. It is also clear, though, that the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association is a group that is constantly aggrieved, taking offence at slights both real and imagined. In 1992, when David Dinkins was in office, the PBA staged a rally of thousands of officers, who blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the mayor’s plan to create a civilian group to look into police misconduct. “He never supports us on anything,” an officer told the New York Times. “A cop shoots someone with a gun who’s a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family.” Sound familiar?

National Post files"Brian was the celebrity journalist everyone wanted to talk with," says Piers Handling, director and CEO of TIFF.

Underlying the tension this time around are ongoing, heated contract negotiations between the union and City Hall. That’s not to suggest that this current fight is all—or even mostly—about money. But like any employee, an officer who’s unhappy with the size of his paycheck will see it as an indication that he’s unappreciated. Toss in overblown union rhetoric about being “thrown under the bus” by the mayor, and that unease will fester.

It’s hard to tell how many NYPD officers agree with Lynch’s inflammatory rhetoric, but the perception that de Blasio hates cops has now become reality in many quarters. The last thing New York City needs right now, with citizens still angry about Garner’s death and two cops having been murdered in cold blood, is a police force that is at odds with the municipal government. But given the history of New York’s police union, it’s naive to expect we’re going to see anything else.

WASHINGTON — The New York Police Department’s focus on Muslims has renewed the political surveillance of the 1960s and ’70s that was banned under a landmark legal ruling, according to a new court filing by civil rights lawyers. They are seeking an injunction against further surveillance of Muslims without evidence of crimes and a new court-appointed auditor to oversee police activities.

Describing continuing surveillance of Muslims as “widespread and intense,” the civil rights lawyers complained that the NYPD has monitored public places where Muslims eat, shop and worship and has kept records and notes about police observations despite any evidence of unlawful or terror-related activities. The lawyers said the NYPD’s actions violate rules, known as the Handschu guidelines, that a court had imposed as part of a 1985 landmark settlement with the NYPD to a lawsuit they filed.

“There is substantial persuasive evidence that the defendants are conducting investigations into organizations and individuals associated with the Muslim faith and the Muslim community in New York, and have been doing so for years, using intrusive methods, without a reasonable indication of unlawful activity, or a criminal predicate of any sort,” the lawyers wrote in a motion filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They said the NYPD’s actions were so “flagrant and persistent” that an auditor should be appointed.

A spokesman for the NYPD did not respond to a phone message and email request for comment from The Associated Press.

The NYPD and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said the department follows the Handschu guidelines and did not break any laws over the course of its surveillance of Muslim communities. NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said the department has plenty of oversight, including five district attorneys, a committee that investigates police corruption, the NYPD’s own internal affairs office and the court-imposed Handschu guidelines.

The spying was the subject of a series of stories by the AP that revealed the NYPD intelligence division infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds. The NYPD is the largest police department in the nation, and Bloomberg has held up its counterterrorism tactics as a model for the rest of the country. The new court motion by the civil rights lawyers refers repeatedly to the AP’s reporting and includes some internal NYPD documents the AP had obtained and published.

The motion focuses on a particular section of the NYPD’s intelligence division known initially as the Demographics Unit and later renamed the Zone Assessment Unit. This unit is at the heart of the NYPD’s spying program, built with help from the CIA. It assembled databases on where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed. Police infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques, monitored sermons and catalogued every Muslim in New York who adopted new, Americanized surnames.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images A New York Police Department (NYPD) van is viewed on January 26, 2012 in New York City.

Supporters said the Demographics Unit was central to keeping the city safe, though a senior NYPD official testified last year that the unit never generated any leads or triggered a terrorism investigation.

The Handschu guidelines came out of landmark lawsuit the lawyers filed and a subsequent 1985 court settlement that set strict time limits for investigations, imposed rules on the kinds of records police could keep and created a three-person body to oversee such investigations.

The last time civil rights lawyers in the Handshu case filed a motion like this was in November 2005. It was not immediately clear when the judge will make a ruling on the new motion.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/04/nypds-widespread-and-intense-surveillance-of-muslims-violates-landmark-ruling-civil-rights-lawyers-say/feed/0stdA New York Police Department (NYPD) security outpost is viewed on January 26, 2012 in New York City.Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesHear the tape that blew the lid off the NYPD’s CIA-guided Muslim-monitoring operationhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/25/hear-the-tape-that-blew-the-lid-off-the-nypds-cia-guided-muslim-monitoring-operation/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/25/hear-the-tape-that-blew-the-lid-off-the-nypds-cia-guided-muslim-monitoring-operation/#commentsWed, 25 Jul 2012 12:39:32 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=197548

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — It’s an audiotape the New York Police Department hoped people would never hear.

A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus in New Jersey called the New Brunswick Police emergency line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.

“What’s suspicious?” the dispatcher asked.

“Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about — has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios.”

“Really?” the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise.

The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD’s biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department’s jurisdiction could lie low and co-ordinate surveillance. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICOKHFDz2Xg&w=620&h=379]

The NYPD kept files on innocent sermons, recorded the names of political organizers in police documents and built databases of where Muslims lived and shopped, even where they were likely to gather to watch sports. Out-of-state operations, like the one in New Brunswick, were one aspect of this larger intelligence-gathering effort. The Associated Press previously described the discovery of the NYPD inside the New Jersey apartment, but police now have released the tape of the emergency call and other materials after a legal fight.

“There’s computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around,” the caller continued. “There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s pictures of our neighbouring building that they have.”

“In New Brunswick?” the dispatcher asked, sounding as confused as the caller.

They’re not acting as police officers in other jurisdictions

The AP requested a copy of the tape last year. Under pressure from the NYPD, the New Brunswick Police Department refused. After the AP sued, the city this week turned over the tape and emails that described the NYPD’s efforts to keep the recording a secret.

The call sent New Brunswick police and the FBI rushing to the apartment complex. Officers and agents were surprised at what they found. None had been told that the NYPD was in town.

At the NYPD, the bungled operation was an embarrassment. It made the department look amateurish and forced it to ask the FBI to return the department’s materials.

Related

The emails highlight the sometimes convoluted arguments the NYPD has used to justify its out-of-state activities, which have been criticized by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and some members of Congress. The NYPD has infiltrated and photographed Muslim businesses and mosques in New Jersey, monitored the Internet postings of Muslim college students across the Northeast and travelled as far away as New Orleans to infiltrate and build files on liberal advocacy groups.

In February, NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, Andrew Schaffer, told reporters that detectives can operate outside New York because they aren’t conducting official police duties.

“They’re not acting as police officers in other jurisdictions,” Schaffer said.

In trying to keep the tape quiet, however, the NYPD made no mention of the fact that its officers were not acting as police. In fact, Lt. Cmdr. William McGroarty and Assistant Chief Thomas Galati argued that releasing the recording would jeopardize investigations and endanger the people and buildings.

Further, the apartment, No. 1076, was rented by an undercover NYPD officer using a fake name that he was still using, New Brunswick attorneys told the AP.

There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s literature on the Muslim religion

“Such identification will place the safety of any officers identified, as well as the undercover operatives with whom they work, at risk,” Galati wrote in a letter to New Brunswick.

The city deleted that name from the copy of the tape that it released.

Reached by phone Tuesday, McGroarty declined to discuss the New Brunswick operation. But the recording offers a glimpse inside the safe house: a small apartment with two computers, dozens of black plastic boxes and no furniture or clothes except one suit.

“And pictures of our neighbouring buildings?” the dispatcher asked.

“Yes, the Matrix building,” Sheth replied, referring to a local developer. “There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s literature on the Muslim religion.”

New York authorities have encouraged people like Sheth to call authorities. In its “Eight Signs of Terrorism,” people are encouraged to call the police if they see evidence of surveillance, information gathering, suspicious activities or anything that looks out of place.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the police department’s right to go anywhere in the country in search of terrorists without telling local police. And New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa has said he’s seen no evidence that the NYPD’s efforts violated his state’s laws.

Muslim groups, however, have sued to shut down the NYPD programs. Civil rights lawyers have asked a federal judge to decide whether the spying violates federal rules that were set up to prevent a repeat of NYPD abuses of the 1950s, when police Red Squads spied on student groups and activists in search of communists.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/25/hear-the-tape-that-blew-the-lid-off-the-nypds-cia-guided-muslim-monitoring-operation/feed/1stdThis July 13, 2011, photo shows the apartment complex in New Brunswick, N.J., where an apartment was rented by an undercover NYPD officer.Occupy Wall Street protesters clash with the police in front of the New York Stock Exchangehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/17/occupy-wall-street-protesters-clash-with-the-police-in-front-of-the-new-york-stock-exchange/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/17/occupy-wall-street-protesters-clash-with-the-police-in-front-of-the-new-york-stock-exchange/#commentsThu, 17 Nov 2011 17:43:18 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=110344

Some 1,000 protesters converged on Wall Street Thursday, and fights erupted outside the New York Stock Exchange amid a tense face-off with police. Demonstrators scuffled with men in business suits trying to push their way through the throngs on the way to work at the start of a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

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DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Occupy Wall Street protester is removed by police after blocking access to the New York Stock Exchange area November 17, 2011 in New York. Some 1,000 protesters converged on Wall Street Thursday, and fights erupted outside the New York Stock Exchange amid a tense face-off with police. Demonstrators scuffled with men in business suits trying to push their way through the throngs on the way to work at the start of a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty ImagesOccupy Wall Street protesters clash with police in Zuccotti Park on November 17, 2011 in New York City. Protesters attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange today, blocking roads and tying up traffic in Lower Manhattan.

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty ImagesA businessman tries to break through a line of Occupy Wall Street protesters who had locked arms and blocked access to the New York Stock Exchange area November 17, 2011 in New York. Some 1,000 protesters converged on Wall Street Thursday, and fights erupted outside the New York Stock Exchange amid a tense face-off with police. Demonstrators scuffled with men in business suits trying to push their way through the throngs on the way to work at the start of a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesA man who identifed himself as Brendan Watts is seen with blood on his face while surrounded by three police officers in Zuccotti Park on November 17, 2011 in New York City. A fight broke out between protestors affiliated with Occupy Wall Street and police, in which Watts was injured.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty ImagesA protester affiliated with Occupy Wall Street link is arrested a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange on November 17, 2011 in New York City. Protesters attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange today, blocking roads and tying up traffic in Lower Manhattan.

Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty ImagesOccupy Wall Street protesters remove police barricades in Zuccotti Park on November 17, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange today, blocking roads and tying up traffic in Lower Manhattan.

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty ImagesOccupy Wall Street protestors lock arms and block access to the New York Stock Exchange area November 17, 2011 in New York. Some 1,000 protesters converged on Wall Street Thursday, and fights erupted outside the New York Stock Exchange amid a tense face-off with police. Demonstrators scuffled with men in business suits trying to push their way through the throngs on the way to work at the start of a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermidOccupy Wall Street demonstrators dance in front of the New York City Police during what protest organizers call a "Day of Action" in New York November 17, 2011. Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through New York's financial district toward the stock exchange on Thursday to protest economic inequality at the heart of the American capitalism.

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty ImagesA woman, trying to get to work, cries after being knocked down trying to get past an Occupy Wall Street protest about a block from the New York Stock Exchange November 17, 2011 in New York.Some 1,000 protesters converged on Wall Street Thursday, and fights erupted outside the New York Stock Exchange amid a tense face-off with police. Demonstrators scuffled with men in business suits trying to push their way through the throngs on the way to work at the start of a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty ImagesProtesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street are arrested by police a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange on November 17, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange today, blocking roads and tying up traffic in Lower Manhattan.

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty ImagesOccupy Wall Street protesters are arrested by police after blocking access to the New York Stock Exchange area November 17, 2011 in New York. Some 1,000 protesters converged on Wall Street Thursday, and fights erupted outside the New York Stock Exchange amid a tense face-off with police. Demonstrators scuffled with men in business suits trying to push their way through the throngs on the way to work at the start of a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesA police officer gets back up after falling while attempting to arrest protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement at the intersection of Exchange Place and Beaver Street in the Financial District on November 17, 2011 in New York City. Protesters attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange today, blocking roads and tying up traffic in Lower Manhattan.

REUTERS/Mike SegarOccupy Wall street demonstrators protest on the streets of lower Manhattan near the New York Stock Exchange during what organizers called a "day of action" in New York, November 17, 2011. About 500 Occupy Wall Street protesters marched from a New York park on Thursday to the stock exchange for a protest that the movement against economic inequality hoped would attract tens of thousands of people.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/17/occupy-wall-street-protesters-clash-with-the-police-in-front-of-the-new-york-stock-exchange/feed/1galleryAn Occupy Wall Street demonstrator is arrested by New York City Police during what protest organizers called a "Day of Action" in New Yorkjeffisgr8t-6122826Occupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York Cityjeffisgr8t-5122826Occupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York CityOccupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York CityOccupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York Cityjeffisgr8t-4122826Occupy Wall Street demonstrators dance in front of the New York City Police in New Yorkjeffisgr8t-8122826Occupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York Cityjeffisgr8t-7122826Occupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York CityOccupy Wall street demonstrators protest on the streets of lower Manhattan near the New York Stock ExchangeNYPD able to shoot down planes over city: police chiefhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/26/nypd-able-to-shoot-down-planes-over-city-police-chief/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/26/nypd-able-to-shoot-down-planes-over-city-police-chief/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2011 21:15:07 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=96482

NEW YORK (AFP) – The New York Police Department has the capability to shoot down airplanes over the city in case of terrorist attack, Commissioner Ray Kelly says.

“Well, it’s something that’s on our radar screen. I mean in an extreme situation, you would have some means to take down a plane,” the police chief said in an interview with CBS television broadcast Sunday.

Asked if that meant the NYPD could carry out the strike, Kelly said: “Yes, I prefer not to get into the details but obviously this would be in a very extreme situation.”

Confirming that he had the necessary weapons, Kelly said: “Yes.”

New York is the U.S. financial and media capital and the country’s biggest city. It was struck twice by terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 and then destroyed the Twin Towers with hijacked airplanes on September 11, 2001.

Kelly said there had been 13 disrupted plots against the city since September 11. “We’re the number one target in this country: that’s the consensus of the intelligence community.”

The NYPD, with 35,000 uniformed police and 15,000 civilian employees, has built up a huge counter-terrorism force equipped with military weapons, high-tech surveillance networks and even staff posted in foreign countries to provide intelligence.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/26/nypd-able-to-shoot-down-planes-over-city-police-chief/feed/0stdNew York Police Department tactical police officers stand guard near the New York Stock Exchange on September 9, 2011 in New York City.